momagri, movement for a world agricultural organization, is a think tank chaired by Christian Pèes.It brings together, managers from the agricultural world and important people from external perspectives, such as health, development, strategy and defense. Its objective is to promote regulationof agricultural markets by creating new evaluation tools, such as economic models and indicators,and by drawing up proposals for an agricultural and international food policy.

The EU Agriculture Council: When denial lays down the law

March 23, 2015

The European Union (EU) Agriculture Ministers met in Brussels on March 16, 2015 for the year’s second Agriculture and Fisheries Council. The meeting addressed the proposal regarding organic farming, the situation of the milk sector and the simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Unfortunately, no major progress was made. Worse even, both the Commission and the Council do not appear to have fully assessed the extent of the milk crisis as we approach the elimination of the milk quotas that have provided a market framework for over 30 years. If we rely on the statistics from Brussels, the dairy crisis does not exist, and prices should bounce back. In fact, no single additional measure is currently planned beyond the recent implemented actions––strengthening the operations of the European Milk Market Observatory, subsidies for reserves and management of the superlevy.

In this context, although the EU Commission and Council restated their determination to continue the task of simplification, it is to be hoped that new mid-term proposals will be put forward to amend, or merge with, the instruments of the new common agricultural policy.

“Only time will tell” if the Commission’s planned measures will be effective, recently advised Commissioner Phil Hogan. This declaration certainly confirms the wait and see and status quo position that defines Brussels. A stand that mostly justifies the doubts concerning the Commission’s ability to rapidly and effectively address market crises, which were recently expressed by MEP James Nicholson in the draft of his report on the future of the European dairy sector.

In this respect, if Brussels supports further simplification with scant regard for the EU agricultural realities, isn’t it precisely time to ponder the elimination of the provisions, which are doing a disservice to European agriculture in the current CAP?

As a result, while the potential of EU agricultural power is getting eroded, it is now more urgent than ever to back it by a policy capable to revitalize it. This is essence of the proposal that momagri recently addressed to the European authorities and to the French Government1.